Deborah Bach has this story at Three Sheets Northwest:
Most boaters will never fire off a flare from their boats, but it’s a good idea to know how in case you ever need to.
And properly staging a practice run is easier than you might think — you just need to let the U.S. Coast Guard know.
That’s what the operator of a 38-foot vessel named Down Time did. A flare exercise will be conducted on the boat at 11:30 a.m. today, Nov. 18, in Hood Canal. The coordinator of the exercise notified Coast Guard District 13, which then added the item to its weekly Local Notice to Mariners, a list of channel conditions, obstructions, danger areas and other on-water happenings of interest to boaters.
Advance notification prevents the Coast Guard from being called out to the scene for a false emergency, and lets boaters who read the Local Notice to Mariners know not to be alarmed if they happen to be on Hood Canal and see flares being shot from a boat today.
